


On a Street Corner

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dubious Consent, F/M, Homelessness, Multi, Prostitution, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-07 12:52:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1899699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You think he’s ever going to tell us what it’s like?  He’s fucking protecting us, Neal."  Or the one where Emma, Neal, and Graham are homeless teens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I’ve been trying for ages to make Emma/Neal/Graham work as a threesome. And I’ve got it, but in an AU.
> 
> Trigger warnings for prostitution, dub con, abuse
> 
> Emma and Neal are both runaways living on the street. Graham’s taken them under his wing; he’s been on the streets longer, and is a prostitute. 
> 
> This is just a little something to get a feel for the verse.

“It’s gonna start raining soon, we should head back.” Neal carefully pocketed the few dollar bills and the handful of change in the guitar case before packing away the battered instrument he’d been playing. It wouldn’t be a good idea to let it get wet. It had been pretty nice once, he was sure his step dad missed it, but more than a year on the streets hadn’t done it any favors.

“No.” Emma, arms crossed and probably driving away anyone that might have tossed them some spare change, leaned against the wall.

“He knows where to find us, Emma. He’ll be back in an hour.” Neal glanced at the empty street corner across from them before taking Emma’s hand. He stood in front of her, blocking her view.

“You don’t know that. One of these days…”

“He’s been doing this a lot longer than either of us. Graham knows what he’s doing.” The older boy had been the one to show first him, then Emma, the ropes. Neal wasn’t sure how either of them would have coped on the streets without him.

“It was her car again. You saw him last time, Neal.” Her hands were balled into fists, so tight that the nails dug into her palms.

“He didn’t say anything.” The first drops fell against the sidewalk; the slight overhang above them wouldn’t protect them for long.

“You think he’s ever going to tell us what it’s like? He’s fucking protecting us, Neal. You saw how carefully he moved and he wouldn’t take off his shirt for days afterwards.” He could feel her shaking, and didn’t know what to do about it except wrap his arms around her.

“I know.” He also knew that the five bucks he and Emma had earned was nothing compared to the hundred Graham would come home with. They’d eat something hot tonight. And they would sleep with Graham between them, as if they could protect him for at least a little while. Like he protected them.

It was fifteen minutes before the black Mercedes pulled up across from them. The rain was coming down hard enough that the woman behind the wheel wouldn’t even notice the two kids huddled against the wall. They noticed her. Neal held tight to Emma’s arm. “She’ll be gone in a second.”

“She’ll be back,” Emma said, eyes narrowing as she watched the passenger door open. Graham waited until she was a block away before crossing the street.

“It might have escaped your notice but it’s raining a bit.” Graham brushed a stray piece of hair out of Emma’s face. “Why are the two of you out here?”

“Didn’t have anything better to do,” Neal said with a shrug before Emma could reply. Her jaw was clenched so tight Neal was afraid it might snap.

“Crazy kids. Let’s go to the diner and get something to eat. And some cocoa with cinnamon. Yeah?” He squeezed Emma’s shoulder but looked to Neal for an answer.

“Yeah.” He picked up his guitar and the three of them walked down the block. They’d share a meal and go back to the skeleton of an old vw bug under a bridge that served as their home. At least for now they were together.


	2. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neal wakes up

He tried to be as still as he could, but even without half the seats the back of the VW wasn’t a very big space. Within minutes of being awake he could feel Graham shifting. “‘kay?”

"Yeah, man. Go back to sleep." It was still dark outside, but the rain had stopped. If he waited long enough Graham would fall asleep and he’d be able to sneak out. He couldn’t go back to sleep, and couldn’t just stare at the ceiling. He needed to move.  
"The same one?" Graham asked, rolling on his side.

"It doesn’t matter." It had taken three nightmares in the middle of the night before he’d told Graham. He hadn’t needed to explain a second time.

"Grab your jacket." Graham sat up, pulling his jean jacket on over his hoodie.

"Go back to sleep, dude. It’s still dark outside."

"It won’t be in an hour." There was no arguing when Graham was already out of the car. Neal put on his shoes and followed Graham, who seemed to know where they were going.

The sun was almost up when they stood on a pier at the edge of the water. The ocean was tinted in shades of pink before the more vivid hues of orange and red.

"My dad used to wake me up to watch the sunrise with him. My real dad, not Killian." He shrugged, as if the memory didn’t matter to him.

"That must have been nice." Graham nodded and slung his arm over Neal’s shoulder.

The nightmare stayed away for a few weeks before returning.


	3. Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Neal and Graham meet coffee, and unknowingly the circle is completed.

They never went to the diner on weekends. Fridays and Saturdays meant crowds and a high turnover. On weekdays they could claim a booth in the far corner and spend hours sitting and enjoying endless free refills. When it was snowing outside a cup of coffee that was topped off enough that it stayed warm meant a hell of a lot.

They’d come in after the lunch crowd, and it was getting close to dinner soon. The sun went down pretty early during the winter and it was already black outside. It was Neal who saw the girl first; Graham had his back to the door.  
“Can I borrow a dollar?” He hated to ask Graham for money. It was worse than when the bill came for their meal and Graham was the one to pay. He knew what Graham had to do for each dollar they used, and he fucking hated it. But playing guitar on a streetcorner didn’t bring in near what letting people fuck you did, and Graham had been selling his body since long before Neal had known him.

“Don’t spend it all in one place,” Graham joked, sliding the bill across the table.

“It’s for a good cause,” Neal felt the need to promise. He took the dollar up to the counter where the teenaged girl stood carefully counting out change. She had mostly pennies and nickels, and was counting them out in that careful way Neal knew too well. 

“You can come sit with us if you want,” he offered, covering her little pile of change with the dollar. It wasn’t Belle behind the counter; if it had been the girl wouldn’t have needed to count change. He knew Belle slipped some of her own money into the till to cover drinks and food for people who couldn’t afford it.

“Why would I want to do that? I have places to be.” She was young, probably younger than he was. Her close were in good enough condition that she hadn’t been living in them long, but they weren’t warm enough for being on the street. 

“Sure you do. And you were trying to pay for a coffee with pennies just for the hell of it.” He waited until the drink was poured, and watched the amount of sugar that was added. She added cream too, which told him either she didn’t like coffee or she knew enough at least to hoard what nutrients she could. “If you stay they refill that for you. And it’s warm in here.”

“My parents will worry if I’m not home soon.” She had enough practice that it sounded almost like the truth.

“I’ll bet you a basket of chili fries that no one’s waiting for you to come home. That you don’t have a home to go to at all.” He looked back towards the corner booth where Graham was watching them with interest. 

“Why would you think something stupid like that?” she asked.

“Because I know how to recognize a desperate person.”

II

She was tired and cold. The last of her change wasn’t much, but when she saw the diner she stepped inside. She might at least be able to afford a cup of coffee.

She was fifty cents short until someone added a dollar to her pile. Though it hurt to surrender the two quarters she handed them over to the boy when she was given the change.

“My parents will worry if I’m not home soon,” she lied when he invited her to join him. Her parents hadn’t cared about her enough to even make sure she’d been left someplace safe. And the latest ‘family’ she’d been placed with would only miss her as free babysitting, or in the creep dad’s case as someone to oggle.

Fuck if he didn’t see right through her lie.

“I’m not desperate.” Another lie, this one harder to tell. The coffee she held was the first thing she’d had other than water all day, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to find food now that her pockets were empty. She’s slept inside a play structure on a kid’s playground the night before, but even being out of the wind she’d barely slept because she’d been freezing. She had no idea where she’d sleep tonight.

“Look, my friend and I are sitting here, drinking coffee just like you. You don’t have any reason to trust me, but we’re in a public place. You’re safe here.” Emma wasn’t sure she could believe him, but it was cold and dark outside. And she was tired, so very tired.

“Fine. But you try anything and I’ll punch you in the nose,” she threatened. He wouldn’t been the first boy she’d punched.

“I’m Neal by the way. My friend is Graham. Want some fries?” Neal slid into the booth first, for which Emma was grateful. She didn’t want to be boxed in. “Graham this is…”

“Anna,” she lied. She’d been practicing the name for two days.

“No it’s not, but you don’t have to tell us your real name. We all have ways of protecting ourselves.” The boy across the table wasn’t really a boy at all, but a man. Not too old, but old enough that she was sure no one was looking to drag him back into the so called foster ‘care’ system. “Would you like a piece of bacon?”

It was food, and it was being offered to her. Emma couldn’t say no. “Thanks.”

II

“We should wake her up. We’re close to outstaying our welcome.” It was more than an hour since Neal had brought the girl over to their booth. Despite the coffee she’d fallen asleep fifteen minutes ago, leaning against her bag. Even in sleep she didn’t let herself lean on Neal.

“She knows shit about being on her own, Graham.” It hadn’t been hard to figure out the girl was a runner, or why she was so exhausted. Graham had seen enough to know what it looked like, and Neal just had to look in the mirror. She wasn’t just a runner, but she was pretty new to the life.

“Think you can convince her to come back with us? She’s skittish.” He’d been on the streets long enough to know that there were people you could help and those you couldn’t. He didn’t know what kind the girl sleeping at their table was.

“It’s okay with you if I can?” They’d been sharing the bug for over a year now, but it had been Graham’s first. 

“It’s going to be a bit crowded, but we’ll manage,” Graham answered. Neal wasn’t the first person Graham had shared a space with, though he’d stayed longer than anyone. He was also one of the few people Graham could honestly call a friend. He worried about the girl, but just as importantly he knew Neal needed to help her. Graham had felt the same when he’d met Neal.

“I’ll get her to stay, at least for the night.” He looked across the table at Graham, who nodded back at him. They could at least keep the girl safe for a night. After that, they’d just have to see.


	4. Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neal wonders if he could do what Graham does

"There’s easier ways to earn money, dear." The woman who had, a moment ago, pulled up in a Mercedes SL ran her finger around the rim of Neal’s cup. Neal didn’t need to guess what she was trying to say. He did, however, need to quickly figure out what to say. There were only a few dollars in the cup, the rain keeping people away. And Graham was sick. With a good payout they could maybe spend the night in a hotel.

Could he do it?

"I…"

"Trying to take my corner?" Graham’s face was still flushed, but he glared at Neal as if they were strangers. "Get out of here, asshole."

Neal frowned, but a glance at Graham’s hands showed him one of the signs that they’d worked out. He had to trust Graham knew what he was doing.  
"…don’t want to get you sick. Next week I…" Neal didn’t go too far, still able to hear enough of the conversation to know that Graham was sending Regina on her way. A moment later Graham came around the corner.

"You’re supposed to be resting. And keeping warm." Neal shoved the almost empty cup in his pocket.

"I won’t tell Emma. This time. But you even think about going with one of them, Neal, and I fucking swear I’ll tell Emma. You think that’s what she wants for you?" Graham coughed and pulled his jacket tighter around himself.

"We don’t want it for you either." But he still ate the food Graham bought, and slept in the bed when they could afford a room for the night.

"Yeah, well it was too late for that long before I met either of you. I am who I am, and I deal, alright? There’s no reason for you to have to do it too. Do you want to know what it’s like, every time you get sick, to worry if it’s just a cold or if some prick has given you HIV and it’s the first symptoms? You want to know what it’s like to wake up and realize someone’s drugged you and you have no fucking clue what they might have done to you? Do you…" A fit of coughing had Graham bending over, Neal wrapped an arm around his waist and held on.

"I hate them. Every single one of them that’s ever touched you, Graham." Graham was, as far as he knew, seventeen. Not even a legal adult yet, but the men and women who picked him up didn’t care. Some of them, Neal guessed, picked him for that reason. It made Neal sick.

"It takes too much energy to hate that much. This is what life is. Having you and Emma, it makes a difference. It’s like it’s for something other than keeping myself alive enough to do it all again." Graham sagged against him. They needed to get back to the bug.

"I’ve got enough for a couple of cans of soup. We’ll pick some up and then you’re going to get under every blanket we have, alright?" He’d find a way out of this someday. He swore he would, for Graham and for Emma.

"Yeah, okay. But first you have to promise me, Neal." Graham pushed away, standing long enough to stare at him.

"I promise." He wasn’t sure he could have done it, anyway. He wasn’t as strong as Graham.


End file.
